Fun Surprise

Friday, I snoozed my alarm a little too long.  With each snooze I kept hoping Dallin would magically wake up and come upstairs and hop in the shower.  I am not sleeping well at all, my body being stuck in one position, physically unable to roll over without some real effort.  Then comes in the squished bladder... When morning comes, I am exhausted.  Regardless of the circumstances, I get up and go downstairs to wake up D.  I turn on his light and he pops up like a jumping bean.  I feel lucky at this good fortune, instead of finding a cute little sleepy boy that unintentionally makes me feel guilty and sad for not letting him sleep in.  He jumps up and down on the old king size mattress and starts giggling, looking at a huge lump beside him.  I notice the lump but don't give any mind.  It's not unusual to find Dallin's bed piled full with 10 or so blankets.  Then he jumps on the lump and I see a head.  Paul's head.  It's almost 8, and he's typically out the door by 7:15.  I am surprised a little because he slept in, but not that he's chosen to hide downstairs in a big bed, where it's free of Ellie's almost nightly visits and kicking feet. 

"Surprise! " both Dallin and Paul say.  Paul had secretly taken the day off to help me around the house.  After we got Dallin and Ellie off to school he managed to do a few loads of laundry and dishes all while Isaac, my clingy-pants, hung on to him.

I had promised to take Ellie to Costco for samples at one, but at 9:30 Paul kept insisting that I get ready so we could go as soon as Ellie got home at 11:15.  Samples don't go out until 1, so I kept telling him to wait.  He finally told me that he had secretly gotten a babysitter from 11 to 12:30 so he could take me to lunch.  I finally got ready after that. :)

We dropped the kids off, went to lunch and then headed over to the antique mall in Springville.  We love look through places like that but don't get to often because we don't want to with kids in tow.  Too many things to break.  It was a fun lunch date.  After we picked up Ellie and Isaac and took them to Costco for samples and smoothies.

Later that night Paul made deluxe quesadillas while I ran out to the library to return movies and get some new ones...and buy movie treats.  I also accidentally returned my mom's movie to the library.  They called me the next day to see if it was mine.  :)

It was a great day, full of fun surprises and I even got to take a nap at one point.

Halloween 2012

Halloween.

The night before Dallin's Halloween parade at school, I ran over to Kmart to get him a costume.  He was being so indecisive and didn't want to be the Poptropica character that he had been for the ward party.  I found this Pacman costume, which he loved.  The next morning I ran over to the fabric store and bought enough felt to make the rest of us ghost costumes.  For less than $20 and a glue gun, I made 4 of us costumes, then I kicked myself for not thinking of making D's costume, and saving the same amount of money that I spent on the rest of us.  You live and you learn, right.  My solace was that D's costume is an Adult, one size fits all, so we can use it for years to come.

Here are all the Steele cousins on Great Grandma Steele's porch.  Every year she feeds us all pizza before we go out trick-or-treating.  (Ellie made a wardrobe change a couple time that night.  RIght now she's a hippie girl.)

 Then we attempted at taking one with my dad.  He's the bishop in his ward, so his costume is extra funny; mustache, tattoo sleeves, and he has a long, grey pony tail coming out the back of his hat.

 Our Pacman family.  We were all so tired at the end of the night, but had to make a stop at Grandma and Grandpa Duncan's house. 

We all know that in the game Pacman, the ghosts keep coming back to life...we give you a hint as to how they keep coming...  ;)

Fall is always a favorite in our backyard.  The farmer stops cutting the alfalfa in the field behind our house and he brings in all of his sheep to graze for a few weeks.  This year, there were a TON of tiny little lambs born right in our backyard.  One day I counted 24 lambs.  We all got a kick out of them.  They were so cute!

Duncan Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

The annual pumpkin carving party has transferred over from Grandma D's house to ours the past couple years.  Paul and the kids were looking forward to hosting it this year, but I was SO SUPER sick.  Paul took work off the day before to clean the house so that we could continue on the new tradition of having it at our house.  

 This is Grandma Duncan and her sister, Jean.  They were substitute hostesses while I laid on the couch.  They cleaned and kept the party going.  They even made Helen's famous lasagna at my request. ;)

 Paul's always so good at helping the kids out with their pumpkins.

 If Isaac finds one of his ties, he insists on wearing it all day long.  It makes me smile.

 Aunt Jean was rubbing this balloon on his head and it would stick to his hair.  He was so fascinated by it.

 My birthday is on October 29th, and every birthday party I remember having a pumpkin pinata that my dad would make.  Maybe that's why I tend to decorate so much for Halloween, to celebrate me.  ;)  This year, the kids helped me make a pumpkin pinata for the party.  It was cold outside, so we set it up in our basement.

In October, we drove up Payson Canyon and hiked The Grotto.  It's very family friendly, only .63 miles.  My kind of hike.  With it being so short, about 15-20 minutes to the falls, I still managed to throw up 3 or 4 times.  The kids had a blast and we saw plenty of deer on the drive up and back.

It's rare when we find ourselves in Orem to visit my family on a Saturday.  It was a perfect fall day and this kids got to play t-ball with their cousins. (p.s. Paul cuts Dallin's hair. ;)

Utah County Fair

One of our favorite things about living in Spanish Fork is that the rodeo/fair grounds are right around the corner from our house.  They host the Utah County Fair every year now.  We love us some greasy fair food and carni rides!  We also love to walk around and see the produce and art and lego displays.